


All Eyes On Me

by pucedelapuce



Category: Mamamoo, Show Me the Money (Korea TV), Winner (Band)
Genre: Canon Universe, Except for Hwasa's hair, F/M, Gen, Look hair is important
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-06-22 09:26:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15578814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pucedelapuce/pseuds/pucedelapuce
Summary: Things that happened the day they filmedFearandStand Upon SMTM 4.





	All Eyes On Me

She’s got the boldest eye he’s ever seen. Minho has been in the idol game more than five years now, and he’s been looked over every kind of way there is even when he’s not, technically, in public. The relentless, critical eye of the dance instructor. The oddly impersonal squint of the stylist assessing his ass in those pants. The under-the-lashes gaze of the coquettish girl-group member. The subtle sleaze of the powerful producer who likes looking at the young ones a little too long. The assessing or challenging looks of the rappers he’s been battling against for months on this damn show. But this woman is looking at him like she’s out shopping and has picked this one and is going to have him gift-wrapped and sent to her apartment by courier service. 

It’s not a look he expected to get from a member of the girl group that’s singing backup for his top competitor in the semi-final round. She’s probably younger than he is; they’ve only been debuted a year.

He meets her eyes and she raises her eyebrows about half an inch, and the message is clear that he’s to go over there and introduce himself. He’s saved from having to respond by the young assistant with a clipboard who appears, bowing, and whisks him away from the general greenroom to be interviewed.

****

He gets to watch the rehearsal of Basick’s number without a camera on him. The girl group is really, really good. Basick is also really, really good, but their stages are so different that it doesn’t feel as much like a contest at this point, and he can appreciate the quality without feeling burdened by it.

The one with the bold eye isn’t the prettiest one. The leader is really beautiful if a little thin, and another of them has very pretty legs. They’re in hot pants and heels, of course, even for the rehearsal, to make sure they can get down those crazy stairs okay. The bold-eyed one’s face isn’t even really pretty at all, but she’s the most vibrant - bright orange bobbed hair and really curvy hips and thighs, not at all idol-thin, and she can sing, too. They all can sing. 

Jiho likes girls with curves, and Minho thinks maybe he can throw them together and get out of whatever awkward situation she might be gearing up to put him in. Jiho is way more famous than him, and he’s tall and not exactly bad-looking, and he has very little game but this woman has enough game to make up for that. Jiho can be his backup plan. He’s been as successful as he has been by always having at least one backup plan.

****

After the live performances he’s exhausted. He feels like he left his soul on the stage. It went well, and he knows he was appreciated, even though the screams when Taeyang appeared made him feel a little second-class. But really, he is second-class, compared to Taeyang, and there’s no shame in that. And now there’s a post-taping casual drinks reception and he has to say nice things to the contestants and introduce his father around and be polite to the producers and make sure the assistants receive the respect they deserve for working the hardest of anyone here.

Her eyes are on him again. She and the tall one are chatting with Jiho, but she’s pointedly looking at him from a good 20 feet away, and surely half the room has noticed by now. He walks his father over to talk to Tablo and Sean again, knowing he’ll be well taken care of for a couple of minutes, and goes over to be introduced. He’s not sure if he’s taking charge of this situation, or being led.

Jiho introduces him as Mino, but he quickly says, “Song Minho,” and bows. The tall one is Byulyi, and she’s actually a rapper, and it turns out she’s the same age as Jiho and they know some people in common. She has a lovely deep voice for a woman. He wonders what her rapping is like. She’s changed out of her stage clothes into track pants and Vans and looks like someone he might actually know in real life. 

And then there’s Hyejin. Up close she is even more of a force of nature than she was from across the room, or from the stage. She’s still in the hot pants, but has taken her shoes off and is standing on the somewhat dirty floor in her stocking feet. She is their maknae, and is two years younger than he is. She doesn’t look like anyone he knows in real life, except maybe CL (as if the life in which he knows CL is real.) That level of charisma, but more down to earth. CL would never stand on a dirty floor in her stocking feet. 

He gives his best modest smile and nods at the nice things she’s saying about his stage, and thinks he’s probably blushing badly even though she’s not saying anything she couldn’t say in front of his father. He feels the room’s eyes on them. He catches a glimpse of Loco, sitting knees apart on the couch in the corner, watching them intently, with his mouth a little bit open, even. 

They are proposing to meet up at a little club later, to meet some people Jiho knows and Hyejin, oddly, knows and Minho thinks he might know, and probably should meet anyway if he doesn’t, for his rep. Minho has to take his father out to dinner and get him safely home, but he says he’ll come.

****  
It’s so late, and he doesn’t want to, but he changes for about the sixth time that day and goes to the club. He’s dressed as ‘I used to be a underground guy called Hugeboy’ this time, in loose Adidas pants and a lightweight hoodie he’s got pulled up to hide his short blonde hair. It’s perhaps the closest to himself he’s been dressed all day. He thinks; he’s sometimes not sure who he is anymore. Occupational hazard, and worse when you’re both an idol and a rapper.

You get to the club down an alley and through a rusty door that opens to put you at the top of a flight of rusty metal steps, but he’s been here before and doesn’t fall down them like newcomers sometimes do. He stops at the top, pushing his hood back, to scan the crowd four feet below him. Jiho is tall enough that he’s usually easy to find, and Minho spots him to the left of the DJ table, in his habitual place by the wall. He’s standing with Ja Mezz and Byulyi and Hyejin, and her orange hair makes her easy to spot, too, despite her small stature. 

She looks up and catches his eye - can she feel his eyes on her as much as he feels her eyes on him? It’s uncanny - and the crowd practically parts, creating a path for him to walk down the stairs and make his way across the room to them. She’s wearing cutoff denim shorts over fishnets and Doc Marten 8 hole boots, and she sees him look her up and down, and she gets a little satisfied smile. He’s not going to be able to say no to whatever’s going to happen, he admits it to himself now, and keeps walking right to her.

He hears a voice, low but carrying, in the crowd, say, “Song Minho will win anyway,” and he smirks and hitches his shoulder, because while they’re still watching you have to put on a show.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on twitter [ @pucedelapuce. ](https://twitter.com/pucedelapuce)
> 
> Many thanks to Vee and Roebling for encouragement.


End file.
